Home Assistant for beginners or easy start

Updated 2025-03-14 !

What is the purpose of a Home Assistant(HA) according to Wikipedia ?

Home Assistant is free and open-source software used for home automation. It serves as an integration platform and smart home hub, allowing users to control smart home devices. The software emphasizes local control and privacy and is designed to be independent of any specific Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem. 

Even for me, as someone running Apple HomeKit and Homebridge, it is a fantastic piece of software that bridges almost everything and enables highly intelligent integrations.

Since it is widely used, there is a wealth of information available. However, I couldn't find a clear "bullet list" on how to get started. This post will primarily contain links to other sources rather than writing extensive explanations myself.

Hardware/Installation

There are several hardware possibilitys to run HA but I'm using a Raspberry Pi. I highly recommend using the HA Operating System variant, as it will simplify your setup and maintenance. Follow the installation instructions, then access the server in a WEB-browser at:

http://homeassistant.local:8123/

Home Assistant mobile apps

Another way to access the HA server is using the Companion app.

Remote access

The easiest way is to use Home Assistant Cloud. First month free and then according to this price list. Some other tips is found here. Please also check the, free and secure, "remote.it" way below !!

SSD or USB boot

There doesn't seem to be any officially "approved" method by HA, but if you search online, you will find various setup guides. 

If you want to reduce wear on the SD card, HA offers a "data disk feature" for internal or USB attached SSDs/HDDs which will improve performance.

Onboarding

The onboarding is well described here. After completing it, you will see the default Dashbord.

Link to HA concept summarized.

Dashboards

Dashboards allow you to display information about your Smart Home. The Overview dashboard will show all detected devices. For more details, refer to this guide.

Reorder or hide items in sidebar

"Your profile => Change the order and hide items from the sidebar => Edit" or just do a long press on the sidebar title "Home Assistant".

Routine maintenance

HA update

You will receive notifications about available updates through the "Settings" menu in HA.

Reboot or restart

Go to "Settings => System" where you will find the "Power button", in the upper right corner, which will give you the options.

Backup

Instructions is found here.

Notifications

The "Notify" integration can send notifications to;

• a wide variety of platforms
• Home Assistant web interface, persistent notification
• Home Assistant Companion app 

The integration with the HA app is really nice and simple and will send a push message to your selected device.

The picture shows an action where a change in state for the IKEA switch will send a message to the app, in my phone, and also create a notification at the HA web interface.

Advanced setup

Advanced mode

Some configurations are hidden, by default, but can be enabled via "Your profile => Advanced mode"

File editor

Some settings, located in YAML files, can't be done via the standard GUI so therefore you need an editor. I recommend this simple one.

Apple HomeKit

The HomeKit Bridge integration allows you to make your Home Assistant entities available in Apple HomeKit, so they can be controlled from Apple’s Home app and Siri; even if those devices do not natively support HomeKit.

Just follow the instructions to install. At ”Select domains to be included” select a domain with few devices so you can test. It's easy to add the other domains later.

ssh remote access and HA command line

To access these functions install the add-on Therminal & SSH.

At the add-on GUI go to "Configuration"; 

• If not using keys add a "Password" in the "Option" part.
• At the "Network" part add port 22.

After restart you can access the HA server from another client with 

ssh root@homeassistant.local

 

HACS install

The Home Assistant Community Store (HACS) is a custom integration that provides a UI to manage custom elements in Home. 

The install enables a wide range of custom elements, functions, which can be very useful.

Node-RED

Node-RED(NR) is a fantastic flow based programming tool where you can build your own applications. I have in the past written a lot of posts for Node-RED and the HA implementation makes it easy to interact with HA:s entities.

Install NR from the "Add-on store" and search for "Node-RED". After installation go to the ”Configuration” tab, inhibit SSL and then ”Start”.

If you in NR, for example, want to create a temperature entity from some random sensor you also have to install, using HACS, the "Node-RED Companion". Follow the instructions and then reload HA.

As an example, check picture, I'm retrieving temperature from a SONOFF temperature  sensor. The resolution is just 0,2 degrees Celsius so taking the average of the last 10 measures I will get more decimals and a smoother output. The second flow is getting the temperatures, for the last 60 minutes, from the HA database.

remote.it
Access your HA installation, free and secure !! 

Here you have a great post on how to. Logon with user "root" and your set password.

My working change in the configuration was 

# Setup for remote.it

http:

    use_x_forwarded_for: true  

    trusted_proxies:

        - 172.30.33.0

Ooooooops !!! Please note that remote.it works with above setup but the HA OS variant is deleting the installation at a reboot !! Don't have any good ide how to solve it ! Any ?